PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- The team he manages is in first place. The team up in Boston to which his team keeps sending players is in first place.

And Sunday morning, two and a half hours before his team played the Rochester Red Wings, Pawtucket Red Sox manager Gary DiSarcina was on McCoy Stadium's infield hitting grounders to 15-year-old Gary Jr., who was flashing that familiar DiSarcina range at shortstop.

His first summer at his new job is going well for this old Billerica kid, now 45, living in Plymouth. Though having lost 11 of their last 12 games, DiSarcina's Pawtucket Red Sox hit the All-Star break at 53-44, clinging to first place in the International League's North Division by three games over the Red Wings.

Gary DiSarcina of the California Angels swings at a pitch during their game against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, May 5, 1996, in Anaheim, Calif. AP PHOTO

"You want to win here, but the ultimate goal is to provide prepared players for John (Farrell, Boston's manager)," said DiSarcina. "That's what we've gone through the last three weeks. (Brock) Holt, (Brandon) Snyder, (Brandon) Workman, (Jackie) Bradley .... Our goal is to have them prepared, so when John gets them, they don't miss a beat.

"We'd gladly take a nine-game losing streak down here (as Pawtucket recently did) for them to be (21/2 ) games up. Because that's what the bottom line is. They're what this organization is about."

DiSarcina knows baseball from many angles. He played in 1,086 big league games over 12 seasons with the Angels (1989-2000). He worked as a studio analyst for NESN.

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He was third-base coach for Italy in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. He worked in the Angels' front office. Having previously managed the Lowell Spinners from 2007-09, DiSarcina is this season again managing in the minors.

One would assume his only remaining baseball goal is to be a big-league manager.

"Sometime down the road," he said. "I'm in no rush. I'm in a great spot, a great situation with the Red Sox. I still have a lot to learn."

In the meantime, the so much that DiSarcina already knows about the right way to play this game is being laid down with honesty, respect and results. After the Red Sox optioned shortstop Jose Iglesias back to Pawtucket in April, DiSarcina pulled Iglesias from an early May game for not running out a grounder and benched him for the next three.

"He wanted to be a big-leaguer, and he wasn't going about it the right way," DiSarcina said. "He was great here the two weeks before he went back up. After he came out sitting for three days, his attitude changed."

Since going back up to Boston on May 24, Iglesias' play has him as the leading candidate for American League Rookie of the Year to this point. He was the AL Rookie of the Month in June.

More recently, DiSarcina, who for seven seasons was the Angels' starting shortstop, provided Will Middlebrooks an old-school definition of an "established" major leaguer after sensing Middlebrooks' definition was a little light following the third baseman's June 26 demotion to Pawtucket. Middlebrooks had been slow to check his disappointment at the clubhouse door. In Sunday's 6-2 loss to Rochester, Middlebrooks hit is seventh homer in 23 games with Pawtucket this season.

"Our only highlight," said DiSarcina.

Anyone familiar with how DiSarcina played the game knows he would demand similar enthusiasm and professionalism from his players. He was among the game's most respected players, viewed always as future managerial material.

"I have a relationship with Will. I've had it since he was in Lowell and was 19-years-old," said DiSarcina. "So I think he knows I'm here for him. I want the best for him.

"I had a relationship with Jose. In 2010 I was his infield coordinator. I think it's important to have relationships with players. So when you say or do something, they know it's with their best interest in mind. I don't have an agenda. The lessons I'm passing on are all lessons passed on to me by players I respected when I played. I don't try to do it in a way that is demeaning to a player, or in a way that gets them (ticked) off at me."

Pawtucket second baseman Ryan Dent remembered struggling as a Spinner in Lowell and DiSarcina calling him into the dugout at LeLacheur Park for a talk.

"He said, 'Remember when you were in Little League and your mom dropped you off at the park, and the game was about to start in 10 minutes? I want you to play like that guy,' " recalled Dent.

"Gary is a laid-back guy, likes to have fun," said Dent. "At the same time, he expects a lot out of us. He had quite a lot of time in the big leagues, so he knows what it takes to get there."

During his three summers managing the Spinners (2007-09), DiSarcina guided Lowell to two first-place finishes.

But he left the dugout to be Boston's minor league infield coordinator in 2010.

While a minor league field coordinator for the Angels last summer, DiSarcina filled in for a few days managing the Double-A Arkansas Travelers.

"The first day I went back in the dugout, I was like, 'Man, this is where I belong,' " he said.

The Red Sox, with Los Angeles' permission, hired DiSarcina for the PawSox job at the winter meetings in Nashville last December. DiSarcina only two months previously had been promoted to special assistant to Angels GM Jerry Dipoto.

Now he is back where he got his final professional hit in 2002 while struggling with the PawSox, trying to get back to the big leagues following a series of injuries. He retired that July.

He is back home. His daughter Carlee, 19, is headed to UMass Amherst. Gary Jr. is going into his sophomore year at Barnstable High.

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